BIOGRAPHY

Actress Betty Field appeared in movies, television, and theater productions during a career that spanned three decades. Field began her acting career with a role in a London production of "She Loves Me Not." By the late 1930s, however, Field had returned to the U.S., and promptly launched her movie career. One of her first roles was in the classic 1939 film "Of Mice and Men" (playing the character Mae), and further movie appearances followed throughout the 1940s (including 1949's "The Great Gatsby"), before Field made the transition to television. Beginning in the 1950s (and for the remainder of her career), Field's main focus was television, with roles on such programs as "The Untouchables" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," although she did nab a Laurel Award nomination in 1958 for her work in the film "Peyton Place." After 1968, Field retired from acting altogether, and on September 13, 1973, she died in Hyannis, Massachusetts, from a stroke (at the age of 60).

Contributions

albatros1 ( 2007-09-04 )

Source: Wikipedia The Internet Encyclopedia

Betty Field (February 8, 1913[1] in Boston, Massachusetts - September 13, 1973 in Hyannis, Massachusetts) was an American film and stage actress.
Field began her acting career on the London stage in Howard Lindsay's farce, She Loves Me Not. Following its run she returned to the United States and appeared in several stage successes, before making her film debut in 1939. Her role as Mae, the only female character, in Of Mice and Men (1939) established her as a dramatic actress. She starred opposite John Wayne in the 1941 film The Shepherd of the Hills. Field played supporting roles in films such as Kings Row (1942), in which she played a victim of incest, although that fact was not readily apparent due to the heavy censorship of the time.
Field preferred performing on Broadway in plays like Elmer Rice's Dream Girl and Jean Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors, but returned to Hollywood regularly, appearing in Flesh and Fantasy (1943), The Southerner (1945), The Great Gatsby (1949), Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Peyton Place (1957), BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Her final film role was in Coogan's Bluff in 1968.
Her first marriage, to playwright Elmer Rice, ended in divorce. The couple had three children. Field died from a cerebral haemorrhage in Hyannis, Massachusetts, aged 60.